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Brown Wristband (Comics)
Brown Wristband (a.k.a. Gidget Florrie) is a member of the Poverty Pack, who's ability to fly, shield and create brown objects are all powered by her shear charitable will and enchanted brown rubber donation bracelet. Her first published appearance is Poverty Pack #1 and her origin is revealed in Poverty Thrill Adventures #2. Created by Ted Shambaris and Derek Lipscomb in 2007, she is possibly the second strongest member on the team after Super Fabulous Frog, and the 1st of the 2 females on the original roster. Section heading Brown Wristband was originally a one-note gag conceived as a parody of a famous green themed ring wielder from another comic publisher. However as Ted Shambaris and Derek Lipscomb developed her further, she became more of a commentary on the hyper-sexualization of female superheroes, notably how skimpy costumes are completely inadept to fighting criminals and super villains without something falling out. At first completely ignorant of her own new-found sex appeal to the general public, Gidget slowly realizes that her image is more celebrated than her feats, and she struggles to deal with the choice to indulge in the massive amounts of male attention or maintain her path of championing charitable crusades. Fictional History Gidget Florrie grew up in the borough of Barrioburgh and attended Highschool along with her friends Simone Davis and wannabe rapper Matthew Marshalls, the latter being the object of her affections. Despite her near-obsessive crush, she remained invisible to the pretentious Marshalls, who's own desires fell upon the uninterested Simone. Gidget was viewed as the overweight buddy who Simone only used to boost her own natural beauty. As a result of constantly being ignored, Gidget found charities a great way to focus away from the neglect. One such charity was to raise money to save the community Recreation Center from becoming another lot for project development. Organizing a fund-raiser called "The Battle for the Rec" with Sympathetic Street Charity, Gidget was in charge of collecting the money atthe door. During the event, she was robbed at gun-point by disgruntled drama class student Conrad Quiverknife, who was dressed in a Shakesperean outfit as a disguise. But Quiverknife, going under the monniker "Mirth Minstrel" was apprehended by Marshalls and his best friend Trey, and the Center was saved. Having witnessed Matt's selfless sacrafice to withold his dream to become a great MC in order to save the charity ignited a new desire in Gidget. Just in time, too, as she was approached by an onlooker named Walter Wellfellow, who worked for the city's welfare department. Offering her a job, Gidget accepted, with the hopes that her contributions will help the people of Golden Megalopolis. On her free time, Gidget still held numerous fund-raisers for various charitable orginazations. During a weekend bake sale in the park, she was approached by Reginald Shilling, CEO of the Farthing Foundation, a charity with seemingly the same goals as hers. Reginald also offered Gidget an opportunity to wo rk with him to organize future events, and she willingly accepted. After successfully generating revenue on her first event, Reginald rewards her with a beautiful copper bracelet. Juggling 2 jobs, and excessively working out to shed her weight, Gidget started showing signs of exhaustion much to Walter's chagrin. Despite that, Gidget took her work home with her, where she discovered a discrepency in the Farthing Foundation's numbers. Confronting Reginald, Gidget suddenly sucumbed to what may have been extreme exhaustion and passed out. Awakening in the hospital, Walter and the doctor informed her she was suffering from Anemia. knowing that Reginald was conducting boiler room tactics within his company, Gidget tried to convince Walter to stop him. Walter begrudgingly agreed, as long as Gidget remained in the hospital until full recovery. When Walter does confront Reginald, he falls victim to an early prototype of a machine Shilling later unveils to Gidget, who learns ofher former boss' demise. He reveals to her that he was robbed of a happy childhood when his most desired toy was unobtainable thanks to being a few pennies short. Dubbed the Round Down Machine, Reginald uses people who've aquired the same copper bracelet that Gidget recieved, to be drained of their natural zinc and power the machine to round down all transactions in the city, preventing anyone from ever experiencing the pain he felt losing his most prized grail. Activating the machine, Gidget once again succumbs to the effects and winds up back in the hospital. But this time she is greeted by monks who imbue her once-copper bracelet with the power of "charitable will", turning it a dull brown. Recovering quickly, Gidget leaves the hospital without her clothes and races to stop Shilling who has now taken the name of "Penny Pincher". On her way to confront him, Gidget realizes she'll need clothes, but the closest boutique is a costume shop specializing in Carnival outfits. With the help of a young pre-pubescent boy named Rigoberto, she assembles her first costume, and is given her new name by him, Brown Wristband. Brown Wristband arrives, just as Penny Pincher uses the Round Down machine to sadisically abuse a reporter, and the 2 have a showdown. Penny Pincher uses various tactics to stop her including his Penny Pounder Gun, his team of hench-woman called the "Bargain Hunters", and finally the direct beam of the Round Down machine itself. But Wristband's shear will of charity take sthe form of one giant donation penny that she uses to slam Penny Pincher into his device, destroying it and rendering him unconcious. Upon stopping him, the police allow Gidget's turn as a vigilante slide for saving the city, and she joins the ranks as one of Golden Megalopolis' newest crime fighter. However this doesnt solve all her problems as with the death of her former boss and the end of the Farthing Foundation, Gidget resorts to maintaining a full-time career as a superhero, taking on an investigation of a recent murder of Chip Napoleon Brown, beloved owner of Chip Brown's Cookies. Gathering clues from the scene of the crime, Gidget retreats for the night when she hears someone entering the bakery warehouse. Upon returning to her place of residence, she is met with a notice in the mail that she has been fired from the Department of Social Services, due to the discovery of her alternative lifestyle as a costumed crimefighter. Dejected, Gidget realizes that she now needs to search for work immediately. The following day, Gidget finds herself at the downtown Golden Megalopolis Unemployment center. While there she sees her old classmate Matt Marshalls waiting in line for the same reason. Before she can think about saying hello to him, the office activity is interrupted when a costumed hero is thrown through the wall from the outside. Following him in are several tall purple robots pursuing him. Various other super heroes emerge to help the outnumbered man and the center is evacuated in the process. Gidget uses her wristband to slip in to costume and shield the gathering of heroes just as 2 of the robots tries to smash them all with their fists. After the assistance of bystander Cookie Brown and Willie Johnson, the robots are subdued by the arrival of Super Fabulous Frog. Victory is short however and the group are all placed under arrest for public mayhem.